The Butterfly Defect

Former World Bank vice president Ian Goldin and assistant professor Mike Mariathasan argue that today’s globalized, interconnected, complex world faces new risks and new opportunities. Their title derives from Edward Lorenz’s illustration of how causality works in complex systems: A butterfly flapping its wings on one continent causes a hurricane on another. The threats people face in a globalized world are not primarily local or isolated, but systemic, as evidenced when the effects of crises ripple around the world in nonlinear, unpredictable patterns. The authors’ prose is clear, their examples are accessible and their complicated topic proves historically fresh. getAbstract recommends their thesis to entrepreneurs, investors, CEOs and anyone interested in complexity, change, globalization, systemic thinking, or surviving in an interconnected world.